Road Trip Down the Muddy Muskingum...

One of the nice things about being retired and having friends who are also there and share the same interests and background is that you can get together, tell some of the same old stories and no one seems to care that much. They are still funny, and they still bring back memories of times when those things were a bit more important, or so they seemed.

That was the case last week as Dave, Dave, Bob and I got together for our annual golf outing. We went to Zanesville again this year to play Eaglesticks Golf Course, and try to get in our dinner cruise on the Lorena (an old wooden sternwheeler, which is located on the Muskingum River) which was cancelled last year due to insufficient bookings. This year, though, we included our wives in the trip. We had planned to get them together and have them tour the Longaberger Basket plant and the Dresden Village area. However, we found out those things were closed on Wednesdays during the summer -- an impact of the economic downturn, I guess. So, they decided to have lunch at the historic Tom's Ice Cream Bowl in Zanesville, and then go to the Heartstone Pottery plant. They took a tour and then went to the work area where they were able to paint a piece of pottery, which the Heartstone people would then fire and ship to them.

Following a pretty bad round of golf we headed to the boat. The golf was terribly slow -- at times, there were 4 groups on the same hole, and it must have been a holiday I didn't know about because absolutely no one was in any hurry. That kind of play really throws my game off, and after a little over 5 hours and being on only the 14th tee, I figured that was enough!! I picked up and took Dave in so he would be able to get to the boat in time to get it ready for the cruise.

We were on the front deck and had a real nice location when the boat went down the "Muddy Muskingum." It was a very calm ride, with just a little breeze. I may have told you that when I was a kid, we used to live in Zanesville and my dad owned a ski boat which we used to take up and down the river on the weekends. This cruise brought back memories. One of the neat things was that Dave and Bill (the Captain-in-Charge) let Pam drive the boat. She had a great time, ringing the bell and blowing the big horn a few times as she piloted it down the river. The meal they served was very good and really topped off the trip.










The next day, Pam and I drove around to look at all the places where we lived as kids and the apartment we lived in as newlyweds. Everything looked really different. Can't imagine how that happened over the past 40 years. We were also able to get together for lunch with one of Pam's brothers -- Lee. It was good to get together with him. We don't get to spend time with our brothers and sisters often enough...we talk to them, but it's not the same.

One good thing coming out of this trip is that the group plans to get together to play golf in August at Wright Patterson. This should be fun. We'll probably get another round in later this fall.

Yesterday brought the beginning, tomorrow brings the end, and somewhere in the middle we became the best of friends. (Author Unknown)

Hooah